Briefs/world

September 29, 2006

AUTO RACINGDetroit Grand Prix returns Auto racing is returning to the Motor City. Billionaire racing legend Roger Penske and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, along with officials from the Indy Racing League, have scheduled a news conference today to announce the return of the Detroit Grand Prix next year to Belle Isle, the island park in the middle of the Detroit River. Penske and Kilpatrick will meet with City Council before the announcement, Penske's spokesman Ken Kettenbeil said. Some council members have voiced concerns about the event's cost to the city and whether it would interfere with other activities at the park. COLLEGE BASKETBALLMore charged in shooting Prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against one of two men accused of shooting five Duquesne University basketball players, but filed charges against two additional suspects. All charges were dropped against Brandon Baynes, 18, of Penn Hills, in the Sept. 17 shooting after an on-campus dance party. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said the charges were dropped after a witness recanted her story. He would not identify the witness. Keady joins NIT committee The NIT added former Purdue coach Gene Keady and retired New Mexico athletic director Rudy Davalos to its selection committee Thursday. Davalos, a former member of the NCAA men's and women's basketball committees, retired in August. Keady retired as Purdue coach in 2005 and last season was an NBA assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors. The eight-member NIT selection committee is chaired by C.M Newton, a former coach at Alabama and Vanderbilt and athletic director at Kentucky. GENERALHall honors Wootten Morgan Wootten, the Hall of Famer who coached at DeMatha High School for 46 years, will be honored by The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with an award in his honor. The Hall of Fame announced Thursday that the Morgan Wootten Award: For Lifetime Achievement In Coaching High School Basketball will be presented starting in 2007. The award will honor a boys and girls high school coach who has achieved extraordinary results in and made a significant contribution to the game of basketball at the high school level. The 75-year-old Wootten is scheduled to undergo a kidney transplant Oct. 11 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. PRO BASKETBALLGrunwald joins Knicks Former Toronto Raptors general manager Glen Grunwald is returning to the NBA in the New York Knicks' front office. Isiah Thomas, the president and head coach of the struggling Knicks, and Grunwald have been friends since they were teammates at Indiana University. Thomas brought Grunwald to Toronto when he was part-owner and executive vice president of the Raptors.